If I find myself feeling spent after dealing with social media, I write. Rather than having the thoughts of others pouring through my head along with mine, I distill my own. Baking, drumming and nurturing our home all work as well. I love social media! After having a significant traumatic brain injury several years ago, it has been a godsend helping me redevelop my ability to focus, concentrate and communicate, all while keeping me from becoming isolated. Ultimately, I think social media will stop being a destination and become more part of the journey through the rest of our lives. The things that are most interesting about social media require us to explore life itself, so the natural extension of that is to remove the stand-alone nature of social media in favor of a more organic experience.

http://www.n8w.com/f/f/diqus Nate Williams

Fantastic insight Mark!

Gabriella Barouch

Well, whenever i feel i’m sitting in front of screens too much i take a break and works on my sketchbook.
For me, the feeling of craft is much more inspiring than the cold screen.

Gina G.

When I’m tired of technology, I create art by hand — illustrating on paper, board, or fabric; and quilting and embellishing fiber art by hand. Getting back to doing art by hand is a grounding experience for me. For me, social media is how I connect rather than a destination. I have hopes that it will morph more and more, for society as a whole, as a way to connect with others, and become less of a destination.

serdtmann

Dancing and being silly with my 6 year old son is the epitome of SM relief : )

Social
media has too many positives to bash it. I have been fortunate enough
to travel all over the world, and with that, it has provided me a medium
to stay in touch with so many incredible people that have helped shape
my life. It is also a forum for people to discuss issues that used to be
“closed door” matters. People with severe conditions or diseases, now
can connect with millions of people for support and share information.
Remarkable if you ask me.

Having worked on
computers in some form since 1992, and seeing technology evolve since
then, has been amazing to say the least. I believe that voice
recognition and “projection” technology will pretty much be the new way
of communicating. You’ll “virtually” be sitting next to someone on their
couch and vice versa. We’ll see.

Nate your work is awesome! keep going what you’re doing! -Sandra

Illustratorlou

I have recently got tired of social media, so I took a 2 month break. Helped at a local toddler group, went for long walks in wild flower meadows and talked to solid human beings I could see with my own eyes and led boring, but happy lives.
Social Media is generally a good thing. I was a designer for a very large company,but now live in an area avoid of any creative, artistic stimuli. Basically it’s full of farmers and British posh country folk. I have found with social media I can connect with like minded people, look at nice stuff & it has kept me sain.
I think eventually it will implode. People will discover that real human beings are really quite interesting & that our surroundings are good enough for inspiration rather than the Internet. A walk in the woods or around your local town are full of things you can’t see on the Internet and you have experienced them like no one else has.
Put the computer away occasionally & go outside.
Rant over.

http://www.n8w.com/f/f/diqus Nate Williams

Great points

http://www.n8w.com/f/f/diqus Nate Williams

I think whenever something is new we tend to push it to the boundaries and eventually return to a happy medium where we can enjoy it, but also understand it’s limitation and keep a nice balance

http://www.n8w.com/f/f/diqus Nate Williams

I can relate to this .. that is basically how I really discovered illustration because I was working on a computer all day, looking at cgi art and code and it was nice to come home and make something with my hands

Leigh Ann James

What do you do when you are tired of social media, information, computers, etc? Get outdoors – hike, kayak, socialize…art crawls, have beers or coffee with friends. I think being in nature centers you and “brings you back” to where you feel connected to reality again.
What do you think of social media in general? (the good, the bad) It separates us, but it connects us. It makes information easier to find and to share. It bridges the distance gap – I can see my baby niece who lives states away and keep up with an old friend that I never see in person anymore. The same connectivity keeps you on the grid, constantly. Of course it’s a choice. But what that choice, people know where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m thinking. The privacy factor is lacking – again, all choice with what you choose to share. Sometimes I get burnt out on that aspect. Sometimes, I need to be super-connected (for instance, finding a job) so a network of people at my fingertips is helpful.
What will social media metamorphosis into in the future? If history repeats itself, there will be backlash…anti-social media. I think this is already happening > a revolt against. As far as advances, faster and easier ways to connect with increased user experience functions. An embedded microchip in your body? I have no idea.

Luk

I just go to the forest and walk with deep breathe and happiness. I think they are good in many meanings but do not really care which way they will choose. I know many more interesting things than social media.

nonperishable

When I’m not online, I mostly take care of my son, work on my drawings, read books, hike, cook, or I maybe watch a movie. I don’t usually plug in during the day when I’m with my 2 1/2-year-old son (unless it’s to upload a photo of him or to let him watch a You Tube video as a reward.)

Social media has really changed the way a lot of us live, in my opinion. It’s become integrated with things I do every day, all day. I use it for recipes, for shopping, to make dates with friends, to keep my calendar and join events, to keep in touch in lieu of traditional letters (this one might be a little sad – I miss letters in the mail). I also use it to stay in touch with the news (I don’t really watch TV any more), It even sometimes brings me work. It’s sometimes a distraction when I really need to focus, though.

I think SM will become more seamless in the future and even more mobile. It’s certainly useful when you are comparison shopping or when you need directions at the last minute. I think the U.S. might even start to catch up with some of the ways the rest of the world is integrating it. I would personally like to see maps that are more interactive with how to find what’s around me when I’m traveling or in an area I don’t know well. On a personal note, I do wish people wouldn’t text while they are together with another person. I guess it’s more polite than breaking away for a phone call, but sometimes I feel people don’t really connect with each other in person the way we used to because our attention is always so divided.

http://www.n8w.com/f/f/diqus Nate Williams

Great points about the good and bad of social media … I really love all the information and connections that come with social media, but you are right it’s not so fun to be with someone that always needs to document everything and thats looking at their phone instead of the person in front of them

Amanda

As a new first time parent, social media has turned into something entirely different than it was before I had a child. Before I had a child, it was just a fun place to zone out and catch up with my friends and family. Since I’ve had a child, it’s been a mixed bag. One the one hand, it’s been an invaluable resource when I need quick advice about parenting issues and there are things I’ve done with my son that have been very successful which I never would have known about had it not been for social media. On the other hand, there is this constant underlying competition between parents. When everyone only posts their good days and you only see happy faces smiling over a pan of freshly baked organic homemade treats, it’s easy to start thinking you’re not doing “enough”. But nobody ever mentions that it took 4 hours, two tantrums, a time out and lots of tears before those homemade treats turned out just right. Many of my parent friends have been leaving social networks because it’s just not worth the stress.

Professionally, though, I also see the value in it as a marketing tool. If you aren’t on social media, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your customers. Frankly, my Facebook feed mostly consists of companies and artists that I want to keep up with. But the line between professional social media use and personal social media use is so blurry, it’s difficult to separate the two. And it can be a major time and energy sucker.

I don’t know. It’s a mixed bag and I’m a little scared to find out what it will be like when my son is a teenager – on the other hand, he will have grown up with it, so his generation will probably be much better at managing it than mine.

http://www.n8w.com/f/f/diqus Nate Williams

Great points … there definitely is a “keeping up with the Jones” aspect and honestly is vulnerability so I can understand why people don’t want to broadcast their bad moments. I think as a society we are exploring the boundaries like a clumsy little toddler and in time we will understand the pros and cons much better. I think the concept of privacy is going to be very different for those who grew up before social media and those who grew up after. Things are a lot more documented and searchable and it will be interesting to see how this affects behavior in society as a whole. You can’t argue that social media is a great marketing tool, but I think marketing is all about breaking expectations / patterns and getting noticed, which will always metamorphosing.

Cyrille

It is so easy to stay all day in front of the computer on
Facebook or smartphone !

Drawing is a good way for me to stay away from this. Jogging
is also a good way to have a break : )

The good : A lot of information at all time, a good way
to follow your interests, to handle a business.
The bad : false information, too information may be
confusing, the fact that so can’t live without it.

I don’t think people will be tired of the social media in
the future.
Information will keep flooding at the speed of light. Hope
we could see the right ones !

Cyrille

Ryan Thomson

Hey Nate!

Usually when I get fed up of using the normal, everyday technology I will go to the pub with some mates or just kick back and watch a film, or play on my Xbox 360. (A pretty normal life for a 19 year old).

I think that it’s pretty hard to talk down about social media, as I pretty much see it as a massive advantage.

I think that in the recent years technology is going to take over more and more, with teaching hours going down and people becoming more and more dependent on computers, which is why I feel that local design galleries and what not must stay strong!

Jim Ru

1. I get my dogs and go to the forest or the lake and walk around. Or I pick up a musical instrument and play it.
2. At it’s best it allows people to communicate with each other honestly without fear of reprisal from society. The internet allows for endless creativity. At it’s worst it creates a false sense of personal interaction, devoid of human contact, and a person can be drowned in information, leading to isolation and confusion.
3. As more attempts at transhumanism unfold, we will become the machine and the machine will become intelligent. There will be further breaks in the barrier between what is biologically intelligent and digitally intelligent. However, there will be a backlash because not everyone want to be a machine all the time. Playing live music acoustically, reading a book, walking alone in the forest, interacting in personal live conversation will be exotic, but also sought out and cherished. Humans are after all living animals.
Social media will continue to disrupt dogmas, challenge corrupt information and power, and ask difficult questions about population, environment and resources. The questions will be, when machines and humans merge even further, who will hold that power and what will they do with it? Will there be room for those who reject all social digital media? And will the planet sustain our use of computers? As the population increases at three additional people per second and as resources run low, and as the climate becomes increasingly chaotic, social media has some difficult questions to face. Makeup tutorials on Youtube are fun, but will you be applying eyeliner as a flood destroys your town, or working on a solution to end climate change?
(I know. Some people would answer either way.)
Discussions about permaculture, eco-arts, sex and gender education, the overview effect, hold promise. I think social media discussions about space tourism, moving to Mars, and thinking that technology will solve everything are a little adolescent.
Fukushima tells us of the limits of technology when it is mixed with greed, short term solutions, and ignorance of the ecosystem. There will be no social media of we don’t solve that human character flaw first. However, we can see and discuss on social media the problem of Fukushima.
War, gun violence, lack of resources, and general disruption of the supply chains are also on social media. We can see first hand the images and comment on them, or experience them and show them to the world.
Art and science are not religion. We make mistakes and deal with information as we receive it. But that is, and will be the role of social media. However the very resources needed to create social media, art and science are also causing many of the problems. That is the question of our time. It is the puzzle of the generation who grew up with this media.
And time is of the essence that it be solved.

http://www.n8w.com/f/f/diqus Nate Williams

very interesting point of view. Reading more about Transhumanism right now

Lauren Brown

Angry at social media–deleted my message!

Clara Southerland

1. When unplugged I am reading about making schools better for children and I work on that by serving as a volunteer for Destination Imagination (Non-profit that teaches teamwork and the creative process).
2. Good to reconnect with friends from long ago and/or far away. Love that aspect as an “old” person. The bad is that people make stupid choices and post them on-line….
3. The future has potential for good or evil, unfortunately, that is the truth with all innovation. What good does it potentially posses? Connecting people with what they need, information dissemination in seconds, flattening the world, hopefully moving to ways of preserving our lives easily. The evil, having your privacy invaded, disconnection of people in a physical sense, lack of empathy as we go into information overload.

Tyler James Hunter

When I’m tired of Technology I find myself taking long bike rides or just watching people on campus. It makes me feel really, human and not so robotic, if that makes sense.

Generally, when I think of social media I think of getting to interact with my friends without the commitment of spending time that I could otherwise be using to do homework or something else.

I believe all of the social media websites will eventually just merge (if not bought out) into 1 big mass of social media. I am pretty sure that websites like Facebook will try to turn itself into a search engine.

Kat

Social media is ruining our interaction with humans in every day life. Instead of talking while we wait to get our food at a restaurant we look at our phones to try to get interaction. Being on the computer has changed technology forever and how the world is starting to operate. I was born in ’92, granted I’ve still been around computers/social media a good amount. But before email, google, and facebook, children went outside, rode bikes, played with friends, now we have all become isolated from each other. The sad thing is we like it better this way, we don’t have to dress up, move, we can just be lazy and interact with our friends. On the bright side, the emphasis for creativity and sharing ideas has expanded greatly, as well as marketing ourselves and our artwork. I’m an illustration major right now and I know for a fact that more people are expanding their ideas on the internet rather than that bulletin board down the hall. We like the quick, fast movement of social media, getting feedback right away whether it be positive or not. The great thing about computers is it’s a education tool, it is an endless database of knowledge. The downside to social media is, it will soon turn the human verbal language extinct.

http://shiftingthemuse.com/ Pamela Brackett

I am thrilled with the concept of social media – that we can share so much – ideas, concepts, witticisms, criticisms, thoughtful conversations, photography, music, performances, art – so very much that we might have never seen or heard before. What I’m not thrilled by is the notion that it is the ONLY way of communicating or connecting. I still write letters – in my own hand, energy connected through my hand on a pen to paper – or I use my old manual typewriter, taking time to think about what I am typing instead of mindlessly entering words on a keyboard while staring at a screen and listening for a sound that notifies me of how many ‘likes’ I have on a FB status. So, I see social media as a blessing and a curse but I am still thrilled for the technology and what it can do.

And when I’m tired of it? I shut it down and read or go for a walk and, if I feel the need, I pick up the telephone – not a smart phone – so I can HEAR my children’s voices who are now far flung from me – one in Florida, another in Texas and yet another in Thailand. And if I don’t ‘see’ them on Facebook or have trouble reaching them by phone I know it’s because they are performing, writing or painting and sigh a breath of relief that they are creating on their own apart from social media as an audience. And I feel pretty blessed.

What do you do when you are tired of social media, information, computers, etc? I play with my kids
What do you think of social media in general? it’s good to keep in touch when you live far from family, other than that, it’s a bit like gossiping in high school, you check out other people’s lives and they do too, but if you see each other on the street you won’t say hi. I’ve recently deleted a bunch of people from facebook for that reason, no point in having ‘friends” that couldn’t care less about you.
What will social media metamorphosis into in the future? Not sure, perhaps a cleaner version of facebook (Ello, already in the works)